In forceAmendedUpdated to 1 Jul 2026

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COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act 2020 · Updated to 1 Jul 2026 · Part 7 · COVID‑19 Control Orders

34. Control order to prevent spread of COVID-19

Amended

Last amended by an amending law of 2021.

(1)

The Minister may make regulations (called in this Part a control order) for the purpose of preventing, protecting against, delaying or otherwise controlling the incidence or transmission of COVID‑19 in Singapore if the Minister is satisfied that —

(a)

the incidence and transmission of COVID‑19 in the community in Singapore constitutes a serious threat to public health; and

(b)

a control order is necessary or expedient to supplement the Infectious Diseases Act and any other written law.

(2)

Without limiting subsection (1), a control order may make provision as follows:

(a)

to require people or certain people to stay at or in, and not leave, a specified place (whether or not a place of accommodation);

(b)

to restrict movement of or contact between people, including prohibiting or limiting group activities or other activities of people within the specified place in paragraph (a), restricting the use of any facilities at that place and limiting movement to and from that place, whether by time or location;

(c)

to require the doing of one or both of the following at a specified time, in a specified manner or to a specified extent, in relation to any premises or facility used to carry out any business, undertaking or work:

(i)

close the premises or facility;

(ii)

limit access to the premises or facility;

(d)

to restrict the time, manner or extent for the carrying out of any business, undertaking or work, including prescribing restrictions on the maximum number of people, opening hours or facilities provided, for the carrying on of the business, undertaking or work;

(e)

to prohibit or restrict the conduct of or participation in any event or gathering in any premises;

(f)

to disapply any prohibition or restriction in paragraph (a), (b), (c), (d) or (e) to the extent specified in the control order or, where it is impracticable in the circumstances of the particular case for the Minister to make or amend any control order to this end, that is prescribed on the Internet website of the Government at https://covid.gobusiness.gov.sg/essentialservices/.

(3)

A control order remains in force until its expiry, its revocation or the date this Part ceases to be in force, whichever occurs first.

(4)

A control order and any amendment thereof must be presented to Parliament as soon as possible after publication in the Gazette.

(5)

If a resolution is passed by Parliament annulling a control order or any part of it, or any amendment thereof, as from a specified date, the control order or that part or amendment of it ceases to have effect as from that date, but without affecting anything previously done under that control order or part.

(6)

The Minister must, in addition, cause to be published every control order, and any amendment thereof, so as to bring it to the notice of all persons who may be affected by the control order.

(7)

A person who, without reasonable excuse, contravenes a control order, commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction —

(a)

to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both; or

(b)

in the case of a second or subsequent offence, to a fine not exceeding $20,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both.

(8)

Where a control order is in force and it appears to the Minister that it is necessary to facilitate the deployment of any land, undertaking or other resources for the purpose of the control order, that necessity is deemed as a necessity for the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community, for the purposes of section 2 of the Requisition of Resources Act (Cap. 273).

(9)

In this section, “premises” includes any place, building or part of a building, whether open or enclosed, and whether public or private.